While the police are carrying out a vast security operation to reopen the road between Nouméa and the airport, the French president has convened a defense council for this afternoon.
Towards an extension of the state of emergency in New Caledonia? Before making his decision, Emmanuel Macron will chair a third defense council this Monday at 6:30 p.m. to take stock of security in the archipelago located some 14,000 km from Paris, in the Pacific.
If the state of emergency were to be extendedthe National Assembly and the Senate must first give their agreement by May 27.
The riots of recent days have caused real chaos in Nouméa. In six days, six people have been killed and the destruction is unprecedented.
At the start of the weekend, nearly a thousand men arrived as reinforcements to support the security forces already on site in order to restore order “whatever it costs”, as highlighted by the High Commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc. It is also aboutensure the restart of the supply of food and medicines while roads are blocked by roadblocks occupied or abandoned by rioters.
At the heart of this post-colonial crisis: the future of a new electoral law adopted in Paris and which ignited the powder among the separatists who consider that these new provisions will disadvantage ancestral indigenous populations, the Kanaks in particular.
For this law to be adopted, it would first be necessary modify the French constitution. The question is whether the convocation of the Congress, bringing together French deputies and senators, and which should ratify the contested reform of the New Caledonian electoral body, will be maintained or not by the end of June.
A sign of a political takeover of the issue, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is now expected. He will have to quickly arbitrate the creation of a “dialogue mission” in order to achieve a global agreement between separatists and loyalists.
